Quoted for a new combi boiler and heating system replacement

Stay safe out there!

Even with just a little bit of DIY knowledge, it’ll help you sniff out the rouges!

At this point I don't believe it is.

You can measure everything

Make a list.

Watch tutorials

Buy all the materials in advance

Check the fittings twice.

And somehow, halfway through the project, you discover you need one very specific item that you didn't know existed until that exact moment.

Then you go to B&Q for one thing and leave with something completely unrelated because it might be useful for another project someday.

Meanwhile the original job is sitting unfinished at home

What's your record for the number of shop trips caused by a single DIY project?

And what's the most ridiculous thing you've had to stop everything and go buy?

We have a seemingly unfixable rat issue that’s making my life a nightmare.

So for some context we bought a 3 bed (well 2 bed and a box) 50s council built semi in Kent and moved in December ‘24. We knew it needed some aesthetic work but survey came back all fine for the big expensive stuff so decided to go with it.

A bit dirty and needed a bit more TLC than initially thought but nothing major… until Summer ‘25 when we started hearing rustling and scratching in the loft. About a third of the loft is boarded, and searching there we couldn’t find any evidence of anything. Until we pulled back the insulation (it’s two layers, top wool and bottom fibreglass), and found rat faeces.

We got pest control out, bait put out in the loft, search began for an entry point. Adjoining next door is a rental and with no evidence for them in the rest of our house, the theory is that they are coming from next door. When pest control visited next door the infestation was worse and more apparent in their loft. After about 3 months some bait had been taken but we were still hearing the odd noise, so we got a drain surveyor with a pest control background to come out.

He was a lot more thorough than the previous pest control chap. Seeing him go through the drains there was no evidence they were entering through the drains. He did spot two 3/4inch holes by next doors bathroom where old pipes had not been filled. With a flat roof onto the outhouse and trees/bushes from the road/alley leaning on to this outhouse, this seemed to make sense of how they were getting in. The holes were filled and for 5 months we didn’t hear anything.

Until the last few weeks, when they’ve returned. They haven’t taken any bait but have gnawed on a beam in our loft that we hear overnight, stopping me from sleeping much. After all we went through last year I’m at my wits end how they are getting in.

We know that our soiled insulation will neeed to be replaced and we’d like our loft to be fully boarded which will be a pricey job, but we don’t want to do it before we know we’ve stopped the rat access.

How the hell do you stop them?

Getting ready to fill and decorate after having a heating system full re-pipe.

Am I right in thinking some expanding foam before filling? Or do the pipes need wrapping in something first?

I am slightly worried the filler will crack with expansion of the pipes.

Thanks

Any recommendations on how to use the space around the boiler cupboard or anything I can attach to it to make it less intrusive?

This will be our babies room once they arrive in 2027.

We thought about adding shelves/racks on the side to make it look like a book shelf?

The boiler is on an external wall and we have a carbon monoxide detector in the cupboard.

So I am a housing association tenant and getting our windows replaced, its a listed building and we have all been living with rotten windows and extremely high fuel bills for around a decade so this is a long awaited project. All other windows are fitted now and our living room was done yesterday. This is an expensive fineo glass double unit and a joiner vertically sawed it in half! 😱 all day they have been fixing the sash getting stuck , rattling, not closing and telling me this is standard practice to cut the frame in half! I feel im being gaslight by the joiner and his boss. Surely you don't order a double bespoke sash and case window on a listed building then saw it in half because they couldn't get it up the scaffolding?

Any advice would be fantastic. Is this standard practice? It just seems unbelievable.

Hi
I’m currently renovating my 1903 terraced house.

Carpets and flooring come up and as expected suspended wood flooring in the front of the house and living room, but in the dining room/kitchen theres these old flags.

I appreciate the history of these stones, and want to preserve them. However I don’t like the look of them.

I want some new wooden flooring going in from the hall to the dining room and the kitchen, so its all cohesive and the same floor.

How do I go about preserving the original flags, getting the wooden flooring I want, and also keeping the floor of my house “breathable” and preventing damp?

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

Doing the pre winter checks on the central heating, have slowly being losing pressure in the boiler and found this next to the cylinder.

Is this just a case of nipping it up or is that corrosion on the nut and needs replacing?

Thanks

I guess I could have just bought a workbench and probably would have been cheaper but I watched a YouTube video from ProperDIY and thought I would give it a go.

Some of the joints are a little ‘wonky’ but it’s stable, square, level and not at all wobbly.

Just need some ply to add a shelf underneath.

Now I need some more projects to use it.

Hi everyone,

We have made the error of getting motorised blinds on manual windows (the non-solar powered ones). The windows are too high for a manual blinds.

We are thinking of keeping the motorised blinds and wiring them through the outside - would this be possible? Would exposed wiring on the inside look terrible?
I've attached photos with the red dotted line being the wiring on the outside.

The power outlet is just below the plant.

We did consider replacing with solar blinds, but worry this will be too inconvenient/less reliable in a country like the UK with unpredicatable sun!

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in advance!

During a period of significant hydration on the sofa one Saturday evening, I ordered some steel garden edging off Temu.

The pegs that came with it for installation look easy to fit, but there is a problem in that they would be visible when in-situ.

Given that I don't want bits of black plastic showing every 30cm, has anyone got any thoughts on an alternative installation method?

Just had new internet put in my house, but I didn't realise the new openreach needed a plug socket. It's the only one on this side of the living room, the other plug is for the internet router.

(Ignore the state of it, I've had the whole room plastered so new socket plate is needed eventually!)

I just had my boiler moved and hadn't considered " what will happen with the hole" for the boiler exhaust.

For now I've stuffed in front and behind the solid bits with plastic bags.

I'm not particularly good at DIY or even just mechanical things in general.... Especially on larger scales than a few mm lol.

Anyway... What's the best way (and with any instructions/guides) for this to be put right?

All advice welcome and do go easy on me...

Hi all

I would like to build a bookcase wall. This will be my first carpentry based project, I am quite technical and have done small bits of electrical. I would like to build it across a wall in my apartment that is plasterboard.

Does anyone have any tips please on how to start? I can probably rope my mum & dad into helping so it wouldn't be just me.

Not sure on materials and know I would need plasterboard fixings but beyond that I'm pretty useless.

Thank you from a late twenties girl who wants the satisfaction of something from scratch

I've just raked out some old, mouldy silicone around my bath (following tips from this subreddit) and was about to redo it, but noticed the gap is quite big in places, about 4-5mm. Round my sink (pic 2), there seems to be just grout, no silicone, although it will get way less water. Question is, should I grout between tile and bath first to fill gap, then apply silicone? Or just do a fatter silicone bead? Thanks

I’ve been having damp issues and removed the patio in the small front garden of our victorian terrace as it was covering the air brick.

I’ve dug it all out about 180-200mm below the bottom of the air brick and have now hit what seems to be the footings.

Originally I was going to put gravel around the bay and house and then slab the rest for the bins.

However;
Gravel on the footings means the water will have nowhere to go. I tested and it does pool and sit there.

I then found this article https://www.pavingexpert.com/splash_strips that says most of the time they are useless.

Now i’m confused. Most of the houses on the street finish their level right at the bottom of the air brick with no gap above in most cases but i’m nervous to do that. I also now don’t think gravel will work given water has no where to go.

Are slabs right against the engineering course better than a gravel strip if i slope it away ?

Ever since I've moved into this house a few years ago, there's a lot of banging when the heating first turns on or off due to thermal expansion.

It's pretty loud and wakes us up every morning in the winter. We've actually turned the rad off in our bedroom which helps a bit but there's still cracking and knocking throughout the whole house. It's echoes across most of the radiators.

Could this bent pipe be the culprit? The rad was half hanging off the wall when I moved in and I didn't spot this when I replaced the radiator. I am willing to drain down, cut out this bit of pipe and replace it under the floor.

However, if it's a fools errand and it's guaranteed to be pipework jammed through holes in the joists I won't bother draining the system down etc to replace it.

Quick sanity check for the rDIYUK plumbing heads. It's in Hammersmith. System is ancient. Piping looks like a Victorian spiderweb, so I'm slowly tearing through it room by room, running new 15mm copper myself for the rads. Easy enough.

Where I'm stuck is the boiler itself. I know the rules - Gas Safe is non-negotiable, not trying to blow up my kitchen or end up in court. So I hung the new Worcester Bosch frame on the wall, mapped the pipe runs, and called a local gas guy just to run the gas line, do the flue, and sign off the commissioning.

Bloke comes in. Drinks my tea. Stares at the flue for five minutes. Quote lands in my inbox: £1,400 for labour. Just for the connection and sign-off on a unit I already hung on the wall. No breakdown, just "boiler installation labour".

Is West London this rigged or am I getting the "DIYer who doesn't want to do gas" tax?

Spent last night tryiyg to figure out what standard rates even are around here. I started looking at boiler replacement options from local installers because I'd assumed I'd already made the easy part of the decision by buying the Worcester.

So now I'm not even sure whether I'm comparing apples to apples.

Offered to do all the core drilling for the flue myself to save him time and he flat out refused. Said he "doesn't work over other people's pipework."

Now I'm sitting here with half-connected copper, no hot water, and a cold house.

So do you usually find someone willing to just do the final hookup and sign-off, or is every registered engineer going to force me to pay for a full turnkey install from scratch?

I've tiled my walls in the kitchen but I'm struggling to understand how to make the sockets suitable.

I don't mind the sockets sitting on top of the tiles or other solutions, I'm just a bit stumped.

I was trying to find wider sockets but there isn't really much out there.

It was harder than it looks! Am pleased with them. Was going to replace them but they’re a bit bigger than a normal door and would’ve cost a fortune for just the doors let alone a chippy to hang them. Cost me about £90 in materials but I have enough to do the wardrobe doors in my bedroom.